Methods, Systems and Devices for Linking User Devices to Activity Tracking Devices

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems and devices for linking devices to tracking devices is provided. One method includes scanning, by an activity tracking device, for a semi-unique identifier broadcasted by a device. The method connects the device with the activity tracking device after the semi-unique identifier is found to be of the device by the activity tracking device. The activity tracking device is configured to communicate with the device to obtain a device identification (ID) of the device. The method then automatically linking the device to the activity tracking device when the device ID of the device matches a copy of the device ID stored in the activity tracking device. In one example, the tracking devices operate as a master and the devices operate as a slave.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/959,714, filed on Aug. 5, 2013, titled “Methods and Systemsfor Identification of Event Data Having Combined Activity and LocationInformation of Portable Monitoring Devices”, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/693,334 (nowissued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,548,770, issued on Oct. 1, 2013), filed onDec. 4, 2012, titled “Portable Monitoring Devices and Methods forOperating Same”, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/667,229 (now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,437,980, issued on May 7,2013), filed on Nov. 2, 2012, titled “Portable Monitoring Devices andMethods for Operating Same”, which is a divisional of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/469,027, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,311,769, filed onMay 10, 2012, titled “Portable Monitoring Devices and Methods forOperating Same”, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/246,843, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,180,591, filed on Sep. 27, 2011,which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/156,304,filed on Jun. 8, 2011, titled “Portable Monitoring Devices and Methodsfor Operating Same”, which claims the benefit of and priority to, under35 U.S.C. 119§(e), to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/388,595, filed on Sep. 30, 2010, and titled “Portable MonitoringDevices and Methods for Operating Same”, and to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/390,811, filed on Oct. 7, 2010, and titled “PortableMonitoring Devices and Methods for Operating Same”, all of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 13/959,714, filedAug. 5, 2013, titled “Methods and Systems for Identification of EventData Having Combined Activity and Location Information of PortableMonitoring Devices”, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/759,485 (now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,543,351,issued on Sep. 24, 2013), filed on Feb. 5, 2013, titled “PortableMonitoring Devices and Methods for Operating Same”, which is adivisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/667,229, filed on Nov.2, 2012, titled “Portable Monitoring Devices and Methods for OperatingSame”, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/469,027, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,311,769, filed on May 10, 2012, titled“Portable Monitoring Devices and Methods for Operating Same”, which is adivisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/246,843, now U.S. Pat.No. 8,180,591, filed on Sep. 27, 2011, which is a divisional of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/156,304, filed on Jun. 8, 2011, titled“Portable Monitoring Devices and Methods for Operating Same”, whichclaims the benefit of and priority to, under 35 U.S.C. 119§(e), to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/388,595, filed on Sep. 30, 2010,and titled “Portable Monitoring Devices and Methods for Operating Same”and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/390,811, filed on Oct.7, 2010, and titled “Portable Monitoring Devices and Methods forOperating Same”, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference intheir entirety.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 14/050,292,filed on Oct. 9, 2013, entitled “Methods, Systems, and Devices forActivity Tracking Device Data Synchronization with Computing Devices,”which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/885,962,filed on Oct. 2, 2013, both of which are incorporated herein byreference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______(Attorney docket: FITBP028A) entitled “Methods, Systems, and Devices forAutomatic Linking of Activity Tracking Devices to User Devices,” filedon Nov. 27, 2013, which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for linkingcommunication between an activity tracking device and a client device.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, the need for health and fitness has grown tremendously.The growth has occurred due to a better understanding of the benefits ofgood fitness to overall health and wellness. Unfortunately, althoughtoday's modern culture has brought about many new technologies, such asthe Internet, connected devices and computers, people have become lessactive. Additionally, many office jobs require people to sit in front ofcomputer screens for long periods of time, which further reduces aperson's activity levels. Furthermore, much of today's entertainmentoptions involve viewing multimedia content, computer social networking,and other types of computer involved interfacing. Although such computeractivity can be very productive as well as entertaining, such activitytends to reduce a person's overall physical activity.

To provide users concerned with health and fitness a way of measuring oraccounting for their activity or lack thereof, fitness trackers areoften used. Fitness trackers are used to measure activity, such aswalking, motion, running, sleeping, being inactive, bicycling,exercising on an elliptical trainer, and the like. Usually, the datacollected by such fitness trackers can be transferred and viewed on acomputing device. However, such data is often provided as a basicaccumulation of activity data with complicated or confusing interfaces.In addition, updates between a tracker and a client device usuallyrequire wired connectors and/or complex syncing schemes.

It is in this context that embodiments described herein arise.

SUMMARY

Embodiments described in the present disclosure provide systems,apparatus, computer readable media, and methods for enabling activitytracking devices (ATDs) to automatically link to devices, such as usercomputing devices, e.g., smartphones, tablets, laptops, computingdevices, etc. In one implementation, automatic linking to activitytracking devices uses logic of the ATD to enable advertising ofidentifier data that is picked up by a user device. The operating systemexecuting an activity tracking application on the user device is able tolink with the ATD without requiring user input or action to initiate thelinking. In one example, the identifier data is a semi-unique identifier(SU-ID), that can be advertised by the ATD, so that a scanning userdevice can link and negotiate confirmation of a correct connection withthe ATD.

In another embodiment, a method is provided. The method includesadvertising, by an activity tracking device, data that includes asemi-unique identifier of the activity tracking device. The advertisingof the data is configured for detection by a device that is scanning foradvertised data. The method includes connecting with the device once thesemi-unique identifier is found by the device and matches a copy of thesemi-unique identifier obtained by the device from an activity trackingwebsite for a user account. The method then establishing a link with thedevice. The linking occurring when the device verifies that the activitytracking device having the semi-unique identifier is associated to theuser account. In one embodiment, the scanning, connection and linkestablishment occurs automatically in response to the device opening andlogging into an application on the device that provides access to theuser account.

In another embodiment, a tracking device configured for capture ofactivity for a user is provided. The tracking device includes a housing,and a sensor disposed in the housing to capture motion data associatedwith activity of the user. The tracking device also includes memory forstoring the captured motion data and a device identification (ID) of adevice that the tracking device is able to initiate connection and linktherewith. The tracking device includes a processor configured to scanfor a semi-unique identifier broadcasted by the device. The processorenables connection with the device with the tracking device after thesemi-unique identifier is found to be of the device by the trackingdevice. The tracking device is configured to query or communicate withthe device to obtain a device identification (ID) of the device. Theprocessor enables the linking of the device to the tracking device whenthe device ID of the device matches a copy of the device ID stored inthe memory of the tracking device.

Computer readable medium, storing program instructions executable by aprocessor, for managing auto-linking of activity tracking devices tocomputing devices, is also provided.

Other aspects will become apparent from the following detaileddescription, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings,illustrating by way of example the principles of embodiments describedin the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments described in the present disclosure may best beunderstood by reference to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an activity tracking device, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example of an activity tracking device, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1C illustrates another example of an activity tracking device, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of activity tracking device includingexample components utilized for tracking activity and motion of thedevice, and associated interfaces to a display screen, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of activity tracking device incommunication with a device and interfaces with a server, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment where a user is wearing an activitytracking device (ATD) 100, and is using a device, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 illustrates an embodimentwhere in ATD is paired to a site, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment where in ATD is in communication witha device to enable linking of the ATD with the device, during operation.

FIG. 7A illustrates one example where multiple ATDs may be present in aparticular location where the user device is attempting to connect tothe correct ATD of a specific user, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 7B illustrates an example where user A, in accordance with the useraccount, has two ATDs associated with the account (e.g., tracker 1 andtracker 2).

FIG. 8A illustrates an example where an ATD executes operations toenable the auto-linking to occur, in one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8B illustrates an example where a device can operate to establish alink with an ATD, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8C illustrates an example where a device can operate to establish alink with an ATD and verification of the correct ATD is performed, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example where various types of activities of userscan be captured or collected by activity tracking devices, in accordancewith various embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments described in the present disclosure provide systems,apparatus, computer readable media, and methods enabling activitytracking devices (ATDs) to automatically link to devices, such as usercomputing devices, e.g., smartphones, tablets, laptops, computingdevices, etc. In the various embodiments, automatic linking to activitytracking devices are configured with logic to enable advertising ofidentifier data that is picked up by a user device, to enable the userdevice to link with the ATD without requiring user input or action toinitiate the linking. In one embodiment, the identifier data is asemi-unique identifier (SU-ID), that can be advertised by the ATD, sothat a user device looking to link with the ATD can find and negotiate aconnection to the ATD.

In one implementation, advertising is a function carried out by logic ofthe ATD circuitry (e.g., firmware, hardware, software, circuits, logic,etc.), which enables a wireless data to be emitted. The emitted data canbe of any size, although by making the data that is advertised small,less power is utilized by the ATD to emit the data. In oneimplementation, the emitted data that is advertised by the ATD is in theform of one or more bits, or one or more packets. For example, packetsmay be referred to as advertising packets. For purpose of furtherexample, such advertising packets may be in the form or format definedby a Bluetooth Low Energy (BT LE) standard. In other embodiments, dataor packets can be defined by any protocol, standard, or non-standardformat.

In the example of the BT LE standard, the ATD acts as a slave devicethat is able to announce that it has something to transmit to otherdevices that are “scanning” “Advertising” messages can also include anevent or a measurement value, or some form of identifier data. In oneembodiment, the logic of the ATD is configured to advertise part of orderived from the device identifier (e.g., the device identifier being aserial number), which is referred to herein as a semi-unique identifier(SU-ID). Although various sizes or parts or all of the device serialnumber can be advertised, advertising less than the whole saves powerconsumption by the ATD, which extends use between charging. For oneimplementation, the SU-ID is 16 bits. In one example, the 16 bits arefairly evenly distributed, so that many devices are eliminated by thescanning, thus reducing attempted connections with ATDs that do notadvertise the SU-ID. Although an SU-ID is not completely unique, it isunique enough that a user's device should only have to connect to a verysmall number of possible matches.

As noted above, SU-IDs may be evenly or at least partially distributedto avoid having too many trackers advertise the same SU-ID. In oneimplementation, the SU-ID is derived, generated, or obtained from theserial number of the ATD (e.g., the SU-ID may be part of the serialnumber). In one configuration of the serial number, one of the fields inthe serial number is data that represents “seconds from midnight” on theday of manufacture. Thus, the SU-ID can be a bit(s) value thatrepresents the “seconds from midnight.” In one example, when themanufacturing line is running throughout the day (or over a period oftime) and at a relatively consistent rate (or some changing interval orrate) it can be assumed that the SU-ID has an even chance to be on anyone of those seconds.

By selecting a value for the SU-ID that is changing for different ATDs,the SU-ID can be viewed to be substantially evenly distributed. As aresult, there is a smaller chance of multiple trackers in the samevicinity having the same SU-ID. Thus, the SU-ID is not unique across alltrackers like the serial number. For example only, if the SU-ID rangedfrom 1-1000, it could be expected that there is a 1 in 1000 chance fortwo trackers to have the same SU-ID. However, if the distribution wasskewed so that 50% had an SU-ID between 1-100, then given two trackersit is much more likely that they would have the same SU-ID. When secondsafter midnight is used as the semi-unique identifier, there will be3,600 different possible seconds that can be assigned to serial numbers.Broadly speaking, the SU-ID is selected/assigned to be a number thatchanges over time, so there is a reduced likelihood that two proximatetrackers will have the same SU-ID.

In an alternate embodiment, the SU-ID can be generated by the ATD, by adevice such as a phone, tablet, portable device, laptop or any computingdevice, or can be generated by the website 350. In some embodiments, theSU-ID is randomly generated. If the SU-ID is randomly generated, theSU-ID need not be part of the serial number and need not be generatedbased on the serial number. Accordingly, it should be understood thatthe generation of the SU-ID can take on various configurations. Ifrandomly generated, the SU-ID can be represented by data, such as one ormore bits. The data can also be, in one embodiment alphanumeric data, ordigitally represented data. In one implementation, the random SU-ID canbe produced by a random number generator, which produces random code ordata.

In one embodiment, an application (APP) is installed on the user'sdevice. For example, the user's device may operate any number ofoperating systems, such as Apple Inc.'s iOS, Google Inc.'s Android,Microsoft Inc.'s Windows, Blackberry Inc.'s OS, etc. As noted above, thedevice can have any form factor, such as a smartphone, a tablet, alaptop, a personal digital assistant, glasses, a computer, etc. In oneembodiment, the APP installed on the device will be an activity trackingapplication (e.g., see FIG. 3, item 202). For purposes of example,Apple's iOS is described, but as noted above, this process can be madeto operate using any operating system on any type of device, so long aswireless communication is enabled. Therefore, the activity trackingapplication 202 will communicate with the operating system of thedevice, e.g., iOS, which will detect that the APP 202 has been launched.

The APP 202 knows the SU-ID of devices registered to the user account.In one example, the site will send the serial number to the user device,which includes the SU-ID, or the site can send the user device the SU-IDitself. The iOS can then use the SU-ID to identify the ATDs that areadvertising the SU-IDs that match, and the iOS can connect to each oneof the ATDs to determine which ATD is associated with the user account.In most implementations, few ATDs will be present in the vicinity of theuser's device, so it is likely that the iOS will only connect to an ATDthat is advertising the matching SU-ID. Once the correct ATD is found,the iOS will automatically link to the ATD.

In one embodiment, what is meant by automatic is that the user need notinitiate the linking process. Once the user opens the APP on the user'sdevice, the linking process of searching for the ATD that is advertisingthe SU-ID and the eventual linking operates without user intervention(e.g., does not require the user to click on icons, controls,configuration interfaces, etc. on the APP to initiate the linkingprocess with an ATD).

In an alternate embodiment, a unique ID (UID) of the ATD can beadvertised. Although this will consume more power than a SU-ID, someembodiments may require more accurate identification of the ATD, such aswhen speed is needed to acquire a link to an ATD (e.g., avoidsconnection to multiple matches, even if the matches are small).

The computing device can be a computer that executes an activitytracking application (APP). The computing device can take on any form,so long as it can process information, load and execute an application,and can communicate wirelessly with the activity tracking device. Forexample purposes, the computing device can be a computer, a tabletcomputer, a smart phone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop, a watchcomputer, glasses computer, or any device having access to memory andprocessing power.

In one embodiment, the ATD is configured collect motion data, activitydata, and other data, such as altitude or relative altitude data,barometric pressure data, heart rate data, temperature data, alarm data,goal data, history status data, processed data, raw data, etc.

Additionally, although the computing device may usually have access toan Internet connection, every transfer between the activity trackingdevice and the computing device does not require Internet connection.When the computing device is connected to the Internet, the computingdevice can then sync data to a server. The server, in one embodiment,can be one or more distributed servers, data centers, virtualizedservers in distributed data centers, etc. The server, in one embodiment,executes an activity management application that enables user accountaccess to metrics associated with activity tracking devices.

It should be noted that there are many inventions described andillustrated herein. The inventions are neither limited to any singleaspect nor embodiment thereof, nor to any combinations and/orpermutations of such aspects and/or embodiments. Moreover, each of theaspects of the present inventions, and/or embodiments thereof, may beemployed alone or in combination with one or more of the other aspectsof the present inventions and/or embodiments thereof. For the sake ofbrevity, many of those permutations and combinations will not bediscussed separately herein.

Further, in the course of describing and illustrating the presentinventions, various circuitry, architectures, structures, components,functions and/or elements, as well as combinations and/or permutationsthereof, are set forth. It should be understood that circuitry,architectures, structures, components, functions and/or elements otherthan those specifically described and illustrated, are contemplated andare within the scope of the present inventions, as well as combinationsand/or permutations thereof.

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an activity tracking device 100, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The activitytracking device 100 is contained in a housing, which may be worn or heldby a user. The housing may be in the form of a wristband, a clip ondevice, a wearable device, or may be held by the user either in theuser's hand or in a pocket or attached to the user's body. The activitytracking device 100 includes device components 102, which may be in theform of logic, firmware, storage, and glue logic, one or moreprocessors, microelectronics, and interfacing circuitry. In one example,the components 102 will include a processor 106, memory 108, a wirelesstransceiver 110, a user interface 114, biometric sensors 116, andenvironmental sensors 118.

The environmental sensors 118 may be in the form of motion detectingsensors. In some embodiments, a motion sensor can be one or more of anaccelerometer, or a gyroscope, or a rotary encoder, or a caloriemeasurement sensor, or a heat measurement sensor, or a moisturemeasurement sensor, or a displacement sensor, or an ultrasonic sensor,or a pedometer, or an altimeter, or a linear motion sensor, or anangular motion sensor, or a multi-axis motion sensor, or a combinationthereof. The biometric sensors 116 can be defined to measurephysiological characteristics of the user that is using the activitytracking device 100. The user interface 114 provides a way forcommunicating with the activity tracking device 100, in response to userinteraction 104. The user interaction 104 can be in the form of physicalcontact (e.g., without limitation, pressing a button, tapping, sliding,rubbing, multiple taps, gestures, etc.).

In some embodiments, the user interface 114 is configured to receiveuser interaction 104 that is in the form of noncontact input. Thenoncontact input can be by way of proximity sensors, button presses,touch sensitive screen inputs, graphical user interface inputs, voiceinputs, sound inputs, etc. The activity tracking device 100 cancommunicate with a client and/or server 112 using the wirelesstransceiver 110. The wireless transceiver 110 will allow the activitytracking device 100 to communicate using a wireless connection, which isenabled by wireless communication logic. The wireless communicationlogic can be in the form of a circuit having radio communicationcapabilities. The radio communication capabilities can be in the form ofa Wi-Fi connection, a Bluetooth connection, a low-energy Bluetoothconnection, or any other form of wireless tethering or near fieldcommunication. In still other embodiments, the activity tracking device100 can communicate with other computing devices using a wiredconnection (not shown). As mentioned, the environmental sensors 118 candetect motion of the activity tracking device 100.

The motion can be activity of the user, such as walking, running, stairclimbing, etc. The motion can also be in the form of physical contactreceived on any surface of the activity tracking device 110, so long asthe environmental sensors 118 can detect such motion from the physicalcontact. As will be explained in more detail below, the physical contactmay be in the form of a tap or multiple taps by a finger upon thehousing of the activity tracking device 100.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example of an activity tracking device 100 havinga housing 130 in the form of a wearable wrist attachable device. Thesensors of the activity tracking device 100 can, as mentioned above,detect motion such as physical contact that is applied and received on asurface of the housing 130. In the example shown, the physical contactis in the form of a tap or multiple taps on the surface. Devicecomponents 102 are, in one embodiment, contained within the housing 130.The device components can include circuits, firmware (e.g., updatablefirmware), processors, batteries, logic, etc. The location at which thedevice components 102 are integrated into the housing 130 can vary. Forexample, the device components 102 can be integrated throughout variouslocations around the housing 130, and not limited to the central portionof the wrist attachable device or chip device. In some embodiments, thedevice components 102 can be integrated into or with a smart watchdevice.

In other embodiments, the device components 102 are positionedsubstantially in a central position of the wrist attachable device, suchas under or proximate to a location where a display screen 122 islocated. In the illustrated example, the housing 130 also includes abutton 126. The button 126 can be pressed to activate the display screen122, navigate to various metrics displayed on the screen 122, or turnoff the screen 122.

FIG. 1C illustrates another example of an activity tracking device 100,in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The formfactor of the activity tracking device 100 is shown as a clickabledevice that includes a screen 122, a button 126, and device components102 integrated within the housing 130. The housing 130 can include aclip that allows for attachment to clothing or articles of the user, orto simply place the device within a pocket or holder of the user.Accordingly, the physical contact shown with respect to FIG. 1B can alsobe implemented upon the surface of activity tracking device 100 of FIG.1C. It should be understood, therefore, that the form factor of theactivity tracking device 100 can take on various configurations andshould not be limited to the example configurations provided herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of activity tracking device 100 of FIGS.1A-1C, showing some additional example components utilized for trackingactivity and motion of the device, and associated interfaces to displayscreen 122. In one example, a finger of a user can be used to tap andprovide physical contact onto any surface of activity tracking device100. The physical contact, when sensed by sensors 156 of the activitytracking device 100, will cause a response by the activity trackingdevice 100, and therefore provide some metric on the display screen 122.In one embodiment, examples of a display screen 122 can include, but arenot limited to, liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, light emittingdiode (LED) screens, organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens, plasmadisplay screens, etc.

As shown in FIG. 2, the activity tracking device 100 includes logic 158.Logic 158 may include activity tracking logic 140, physical contactlogic 142, display interface logic 144, alarm management logic 146,pairing and linking logic 147, wireless communication logic 148,processor 106, and sensors 156. Other logic can be provided in the formof firmware, which can be updated from time to time. In one example, thefirmware, software, logic, etc. can execute and manage the pairing andlinking logic 147. Additionally, storage (e.g. memory) 108, and abattery 154 can be integrated within the activity tracking device 100.The activity tracking logic 140 can include logic that is configured toprocess motion data produced by sensors 156, so as to quantify themotion and produce identifiable metrics associated with the motion.

Some motions will produce and quantify various types of metrics, such asstep count, stairs climbed, distance traveled, very active minutes,calories burned, etc. The physical contact logic 142 can include logicthat calculates or determines when particular physical contact canqualify as an input. To qualify as an input, the physical contactdetected by sensors 156 should have a particular pattern that isidentifiable as input. For example, the input may be predefined to be adouble tap input, and the physical contact logic 142 can analyze themotion to determine if a double tap indeed occurred in response toanalyzing the sensor data produced by sensors 156.

In other embodiments, the physical contact logic can be programmed todetermine when particular physical contacts occurred, the time inbetween the physical contacts, and whether the one or more physicalcontacts will qualify within predefined motion profiles that wouldindicate that an input is desired. If physical contact occurs that isnot within some predefined profile or pattern, the physical contactlogic will not indicate or qualify that physical contact as an input.

The display interface logic 144 is configured to interface with theprocessor and the physical contact logic to determine when specificmetric data will be displayed on the display screen 122 of the activitytracking device 100. The display interface logic 144 can act to turn onthe screen, display metric information, display characters oralphanumeric information, display graphical user interface graphics, orcombinations thereof. Alarm management logic 146 can function to providea user interface and settings for managing and receiving input from auser to set an alarm. The alarm management logic can interface with atimekeeping module (e.g., clock, calendar, time zone, etc.), and cantrigger the activation of an alarm. The alarm can be in the form of anaudible alarm or a non-audible alarm.

A non-audible alarm can provide such alarm by way of a vibration. Thevibration can be produced by a motor integrated in the activity trackingdevice 100. The vibration can be defined to include various vibrationpatterns, intensities, and custom set patterns. The vibration producedby the motor or motors of the activity tracking device 100 can bemanaged by the alarm management logic 146 in conjunction with processingby the processor 106. The wireless communication logic 148 is configuredfor communication of the activity tracking device with another computingdevice by way of a wireless signal. The wireless signal can be in theform of a radio signal. As noted above, the radio signal can be in theform of a Wi-Fi signal, a Bluetooth signal, a low energy Bluetooth(e.g., LE Bluetooth) signal, or combinations thereof. The wirelesscommunication logic can interface with the processor 106, storage 108and battery 154 of device 100, for transferring activity data, which maybe in the form of motion data or processed motion data, stored in thestorage 108 to the computing device.

In one embodiment, processor 106 functions in conjunction with thevarious logic components 140, 142, 144, 146, 147, and 148. The processor106 can, in one embodiment, provide the functionality of any one or allof the logic components. In other embodiments, multiple chips can beused to separate the processing performed by any one of the logiccomponents and the processor 106. Sensors 156 can communicate via a buswith the processor 106 and/or the logic components. The storage 108 isalso in communication with the bus for providing storage of the motiondata processed or tracked by the activity tracking device 100. Battery154 is provided for providing power to the activity tracking device 100.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of activity tracking device 100 incommunication with a device 200. Device 200 is a computing device thatis capable of communicating wirelessly with activity tracking device 100and with the Internet 160. Device 200 can support installation andexecution of applications (e.g., APPs, mobile APPs, etc.). Suchapplications can include an activity tracking application 202. Activitytracking application 202 can be downloaded from a server or locallyinstalled. The server can be a specialized server or a general serverthat provides applications to devices, such as an application store.Once the activity tracking application 202 is installed in the device200, the device 200 can communicate or be set to communicate withactivity tracking device (ATD) 100 (Device A). As described below, theATD 100 is first paired to a website that manages the ATD and provideuser access (e.g., via a user account) to metrics and informationproduced by the ATD. The pairing to the site can be by way of the userdevice (e.g., using the OS of a smartphone or a dongle device), havingaccess to the Internet and the website that manages the ATD.

The device 200 can be a smartphone, a handheld computer, a tabletcomputer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, or any other computingdevice capable of wirelessly interfacing with Device A. In oneembodiment, the device can also have circuitry and logic forcommunicating with the Internet. However, it should be understood thatan Internet connection is not required to enable the device 200 tocommunicate with the activity tracking device 100.

In one embodiment, device 200 communicates with activity tracking device100 over a Bluetooth connection. In one embodiment, the Bluetoothconnection is a low energy Bluetooth connection (e.g., Bluetooth LE,BLE, or Bluetooth Smart). Low energy Bluetooth is configured forproviding low power consumption relative to standard Bluetoothcircuitry. Low energy Bluetooth uses, in one embodiment, a 2.4 GHz radiofrequency, which allows for dual mode devices to share a single radioantenna. In one embodiment, low energy Bluetooth connections canfunction at distances up to 50 meters, with over the air data ratesranging between 1-3 megabits (Mb) per second. In one embodiment, aproximity distance for communication can be defined by the particularwireless link, and is not tied to any specific standard. It should beunderstood that the proximity distance limitation will change inaccordance with changes to existing standards and in view of futurestandards and/or circuitry and capabilities.

Device 200 can also communicate with the Internet 160 (e.g., cloud)using an Internet connection. The Internet connection of the device 200can include cellular connections, wireless connections such as Wi-Fi,and combinations thereof (such as connections to switches betweendifferent types of connection links). The device, as mentioned above,can be a smartphone or tablet computer, or any other type of computingdevice having access to the Internet and with capabilities forcommunicating with the activity tracking device 100.

In one embodiment, a server 220 is also provided, which is interfacedwith the Internet 160. The server 220 (or servers) can include a numberof applications that service the activity tracking device 100, and theassociated users of the activity tracking device 100 by way of useraccounts. For example, the server 220 can include an activity managementapplication 224. The activity management application 224 can includelogic for providing access to various devices 100, which are associatedwith user accounts managed by server 220. The activity managementapplication 224 can be presented by a website 350. The website 350 canprovide user interfaces that enable access to user accounts, user data,identification of tracking devices paired with the site (e.g., website),historical data, information, social data, social connections, rewards,earned badges, etc. Server 220 can include storage 226 (or multiplestorage repositories, which can include local storage, distributedstorage, data center storage, etc.) that includes various user accountsand associated user profiles. The user account 228 a for user A and theuser account 228 n for user N are shown to include various information.

The information can include, without limitation, device-user accountdata 300, system configurations, user configurations, settings and data,etc. The storage 226 will include any number of user profiles, dependingon the number of registered users having user accounts for theirrespective activity tracking devices. It should also be noted that asingle user account can have various or multiple devices associatedtherewith, and the multiple devices can be individually customized,managed and accessed by a user.

Data from multiple ATDs can also be collected and associated to a useraccount of the site. In one configuration, logic of the site can managedata from more than one device per user account. The data can bepre-assigned or organized for each tracking device or can be blended orcombined based on rules of priority. In other embodiments, metricscollected from multiple devices can processed to provide refinedmetrics. The refined metrics can then be accessed, presented or viewedon the site 350 or on a device accessing the user account.

In one embodiment, the user account will include the semi-uniqueidentifier (SU-ID) of each device associated with the user account. Asdescribed herein, the SU-ID, in one embodiment, is part of the serialnumber of the ATD (e.g., a 16 bit portion of the serial number). In oneembodiment, the user account managed by the website 350 can also storethe complete serial number in association with the user accounts 228. Asnoted above, the initial pairing of the tracker to the site may includehaving the tracker send the complete serial number to the site. Thus,the site will have the serial number, which will include the SU-ID.

It should be understood that the SU-ID can be defined to include less ormore of the complete serial number, and therefore the 16 bit example isjust that, an example.

During an initial paring (or re-pairing) of the ATD to the site, theSU-ID of the ATD is provided to the site. As noted above, the ATD, inone example will send the complete serial number to the site, which willinclude the SU-ID. The site, in storage 302, will then store the serialnumber, which includes the SU-ID of the tracker in association with theuser account. Then, the ATD uses the SU-ID in its advertising to enableautomatic linking, as described herein.

As further shown, the ATD 100, in one embodiment, will include storage108 that can store activity data 304, device ID 306, and the SU-ID 302.As noted above, the device ID 306 may be the serial number of the ATD100. The SU-ID 302 is a portion of the serial number. In one example,only the device ID 306 is stored, and to implement the advertising, theATD accesses the SU-ID part of the serial number. This information isstored in the ATD 100. The logic 158 of the ATD, in one embodiment, willinclude firmware, logic, software, that enables the generation or accessof the SU-ID 302, using the device ID 306 (i.e., the serial number).

The activity data of the ATD can be processed to identify a plurality ofmetrics associated with the motion data or other information. Themetrics can be shown in various graphical user interfaces of a websiteenabled by the server 220. The website can include various pages withgraphical user interfaces for rendering and displaying the variousmetrics for view by the user associated with the user account. In oneembodiment, the website can also include interfaces that allow for dataentry and configuration by the user.

The configurations may include defining which metrics will be displayedon the activity tracking device 100. In addition, the configurations caninclude identification of which metrics will be a first metric to bedisplayed on the activity tracking device. The first metric to bedisplayed by the activity tracking device can be in response to a userinput at the activity tracking device 100. As noted above, the userinput can be by way of physical contact. The physical contact isqualified by the processor and/or logic of the activity tracking device100 to determine if the physical contact should be treated as an input.The input can trigger or cause the display screen of the activitytracking device 100 to be turned on to display a specific metric, thatis selected by the user as the first metric to display. In anotherembodiment, the first metric displayed in response to the input can bepredefined by the system as a default.

The configuration provided by the user by way of the server 220 and theactivity management application 224 can also be provided by way of theactivity tracking application 202 of the computing device 200. Forexample, the activity tracking application 202 can include a pluralityof screens that also display metrics associated with the captured motiondata of the activity tracking device 100. The activity trackingapplication 202 can also allow for user input and configuration atvarious graphical user interface screens to set and define which inputwill produce display. The configuration can also allow a user to selecta different tracker to pair with at various times, such as when a useraccount is associated with more than one tracker device.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment where a user is wearing an activitytracking device (ATD) 100, and is using a device 200, in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention. In this implementation, theuser is in the process of pairing ATD 100 to the website 350 (site). TheATD 100 includes firmware with process instructions for generating theSU-ID. The ATD also is configured to communicate the serial number ofthe ATD to the device 200. The device 200 will then send the serialnumber to the website 350 via the Internet 160. In another embodiment,the user can pair the ATD 100 to the site using a dongle connected to acomputer that has an Internet connection. In this embodiment, the donglecan communicate wirelessly to the ATD, and the user can login to thewebsite 352 allow for the pairing operation of the ATD to the user'saccount.

As shown, the website 350 may include a plurality of user accounts 228,and each user account will be associated to trackers (ATDs) that havebeen paired to the user's account. In this example, the user is user A,and user a has ATD-1 paired to her account. In addition, the account ofuser A will be associated with the SU-ID of the ATD-1. Association tothe SU-ID can be by way of the complete serial number, obtained from theATDs, each which includes the SU-IDs. In a similar manner, other users,such as users B, C, N, can associate one or more trackers to theirrespective user accounts. In the case of user C, two trackers (ATD-1 andATD-2) have been associated to user C's account, along with anassociation, relation or pointers/references to the respective SU-IDs(e.g., and in one example, the respective serial numbers).

In one embodiment, the ATD 100 is configured to transfer its serialnumber to the website 350 for association to the user's account, and therespective ATD. The website 350, as shown, may be managed by servers220, which are in communication with its storage 226. The user accounts228 are defined in storage which is accessible to the server 220. Sitelogic 402 can include an activity management application 224. Theactivity management application 224 can function to manage the useraccounts 228. The management of the assigned ATDs and respective SU-IDscan also be managed by the site logic 402.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment where in ATD is paired to the site 350,in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In operation502, the user account is accessed for pairing an ATD to the site. Theuser account can be, for example a new user, or an existing user. Ineach case, users can add ATDs (e.g., one or more) to their account, andthe associated SU-IDs. In operation 504, the device 200 can scan todiscover an available ATD that the user may be wishing to pair to theuser account at the site. The device performing the scanning can also bea dongle, in another embodiment. In operation 506, one of the discoveredATDs is selected by the user for association to the user account.

Firmware (or logic) operating on the ATD 100 can communicate with thedevice during the pairing operation. During this pairing operation, theATD 100 can send the serial number of the ATD 100 to the device 200 ordongle. The device 200 or dongle will then send the serial number (e.g.,including the SU-ID for the ATD 100) to the site 350, which is thenassociated to the user's account as shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment where in ATD 100 is in communicationwith a device 200 to enable linking of the ATD 100 with the device 200,during operation. For instance, once the ATD 100 has been associated tothe user's account on the site and the SU-ID is known to the site, latercommunication of the ATD 100 to the device 200 will require establishinga link. In this example, the ATD 100 will produce an advertisementmessage that includes the SU-ID of the ATD 100 in operation 602.

On the device side, the device 200 will have an activity trackingapplication, which the user can log into to access the user account atthe site (e.g., website 350). The activity tracking application on thedevice 200 will make connection to the user account at the site, andwill be provided with the serial numbers (which include the SU-ID) forone or more ATDs associated with the account.

In operation 608, the app on the device 200 is opened and logged into toaccess the user account at the site. In operation 610, the device 200will scan for ATDs having the SU-ID of the user account. The appexecuting on the device 200 will also utilize functionality of theoperating system to enable the scanning for ATDs, and the advertisedmessages coming from ATDs. In operation 612, the device 200, utilizingthe operating system (in the example of Apple Inc., iOS) and logic ofthe app will enable connection to each of the ATDs having SU-ID, whichare found. Normally, only one device will be found in proximity to thedevice 200, provided no other users with an ATD are in the vicinity.

In one implementation, even if one only one device is found with thecorrect SU-ID, the process will still verify that the correct ATD hasbeen found. This process, in one example, uses all or part of the fullserial number to confirm that the ATD found is the correct ATD for theuser that logged into the app on device 200 or some other device. Asnoted above, the site 350 may provide the full serial number to thedevice 200, so the device 200 will have access to the full serial numberto make the confirmation or verification that the SU-ID found is for thecorrect ATD that belongs to the user logged into the app via the device200.

In other embodiments where more than one user is wearing an ATD in aparticular vicinity, it is likely that more than one ATD will have thesame SU-ID. However, the number will be small relative to not searchingfor or filtering for the SU-ID known to the app executed by device 200.

Because the set of possible ATDs generating advertisement messages withthe same SU-ID is substantially reduced, device 200 will only have toconnect to that small subset of ATDs to determine if the correct ATD forthe user is found.

If multiple ATDs have the same SU-ID, the app can connect to each one inturn and check against the complete serial number or parts of the serialnumber or other identifying data. Without the SU-ID, the app would haveto connect with many more ATDs to search for the desired ATD.

In operation 604, ATD 100 will exchange data with device 200, during theperiod when operations 610 and 612 are executed by device 200. Inoperation 614, device 200 has identified the correct ATD 100 to linkwith, and an auto-link operation is performed with ATD 100, in operation606. As used herein, auto-linking means that device 200 did not requirethe user to select to pair to a specific ATD 100 when logging into theapp on device 200. Instead, the user simply logs into the app 200, andthe logic in the app and the OS (operating system) on device 200 scanfor and identify the correct ATD 100, and established the linkautomatically. This automatic linking occurs without user input, asidefrom having the user open and login to the app on device 200.

FIG. 7A illustrates one example where multiple ATDs may be present in aparticular location where the user device is attempting to connect tothe correct ATD of a specific user, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention. The user account 300 is shown to be the useraccount of user A, and the user account has associated therewith (e.g.,previously paired to) tracker 1, and SU-ID. The user account 300 may bestored in storage accessible by website 350, over the cloud Internet160. The device, which may be device 200, will have access to thewebsite 350 and the user account. As in the embodiment of FIG. 6, thedevice 200 will include an app, such as an application trackingapplication. The app can then be opened and logged into to initiate theauto linking. The auto linking will take place without having the userselect any linking operation, and therefore operates in the background.

In operation 702, the app is opened and logged into for user A, at thesite. For example, the app will establish Internet connection to thewebsite 350 to enable access to user A's account. During this time,activity tracking devices in the vicinity may be generating 602advertisement messages with their respective SU-IDs. In operation 704,the device 200 can scan for ATDs having the SU-ID of the user account.As noted above, the device can utilize the scanning operation providedby the operating system, to identify or locate advertisement dataprovided by ATDs in the vicinity.

In one embodiment, the vicinity in which advertisement messages can bedetected can be up to about 50 meters, or within local environmentalconstraints or restrictions or capabilities of a Bluetooth LEcommunication signal. In other embodiments, further distances can bedefined, depending on the technology and communication protocols used.

In operation 706, the device will communicate and connect with each ATDhaving the SU-ID until the correct ATD is found. As noted above, thedevice 200, utilizing the app and operating system will perform thescanning and connection to the ATDs in order to find ATDs having theSU-ID. If only one has a matching SU-ID, then the connection willproceed to auto linking 708. If more than one ATD has a matching SU-ID,the app on the device 200 will examine the complete serial number of theATD to determine which ATD is the correct one.

In this example, it is determined that tracker 1 is one of the ATDsgenerating advertisement signal with an SU-ID that matches the SU-ID oftracker 1 in the user account of user A. The auto linking will thenproceed in operation 708 when the device is linked to tracker 1. Asnoted above, the linking occurs automatically, and the operationsperformed between the device and the ATD to identify the correct ATDoccur without user intervention or selection made by the user. The usersimply logs in to the user account on the app of the device, and thedevice in the background will negotiate and identify the proper ATD toestablish the auto-link.

FIG. 7B illustrates an example where user A, in accordance with the useraccount 300, has two ATDs associated with the account (e.g., tracker 1and tracker 2). For example, a plurality of ATDs at a particularlocation can be transmitting their advertisement messages with theirrespective SU-IDs. As in the embodiment of FIG. 7A, the device 702 willopen the app and login to the user account at the site, for user A. Inone embodiment, logging into the account can be automatic, if the userhas saved the login credentials. In such a configuration, the usersimply has to open the app, which automatically logs the user into hisor her account.

The device in operations 704 and 706 will scan for ATDs having SU-IDs ofthe user account, and connecting each of the ATDs until the correct ATDsare found. In this example, more than one ATD has been found havingSU-IDs that are assigned to User A's account. For this configuration, amessage can be generated to the user on the device 200, to promptselection of one of the ATD to link to at this particular time, as shownin operation 708. The user selects the link to tracker to in operation710, which allows the device to auto-link with the tracker 2. In thisconfiguration, the device has identified two trackers that belong touser account A. Although the user has selected to link with tracker 2,the user can be provided with an interface to toggle between linkingwith tracker 1, instead of tracker 2, or back to tracker 1. Thisprovides for an efficient way for the device to connect to multipletrackers and access data or functionality of the trackers by way of theapp of the device. In another embodiment, the device 200 can link tomore than one device at the same time.

FIG. 8A illustrates an example where an ATD executes operations toenable the auto linking to occur, in one embodiment of the presentinvention. In operation 802, advertising data is generated by the ATD,including the SU-ID of the tracker.

In operation 804, the ATD will exchange communication with a devicehaving the SU-ID. As noted above, the device will obtain the SU-ID fromthe site when the device opens and logs into the user account, whichholds the serial number (and SU-ID) for that account. Thus, the trackerin operation 804 will be advertising the SU-ID, and the device will haveknowledge of the SU-ID to identify the ATD for making the link. Inoperation 806, the tracker is linked to the device having the SU-ID thatmatches. Again, as noted above, if multiple ATDs have the same SU-ID, afurther determination will be made to verify the matching ATD withcomplete serial number or parts of the serial number.

FIG. 8B illustrates an example where a device 200 can operate toestablish a link with an ATD, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention. In operation 808, the device will obtain the serialnumber for an ATD for a user account, when the device opens anapplication and logs into the user account. The device in operation 810will scan for trackers advertising their SU-IDs. In operation 812, thedevice will identify the tracker having the SU-ID, which was obtainedfrom the serial number.

In one embodiment, operation 813 is optionally performed if more thanone ATD has the same SU-ID. In this operation, the full serial numbermay be used to correctly identify the ATD. In operation 814, the correctdevice will auto-link with the tracker having the matching SU-ID,provided no other trackers have the same SU-ID.

In an another embodiment, operation 813-1 is processed instead ofoperation 813. In operation 813-1, the ATD is correctly identified afterthe SU-ID has been determined to be a match. In this implementation,even if only one ATD with a matching SU-ID is found by the device 200,the ATD is verified to be the correct ATD that is associated with theuser's account on the site 350. In one example configuration, thecomplete, full or part of the serial number of the ATD is compared tothe serial number of the ATD. The ATD and the device 200 willcommunicate, wherein the ATD will provide the serial number to thedevice 200, and the device 200 can verify or confirm that the ATD withthe matching SU-ID is the correct ATD. In an alternate embodiment, otherdata other than the serial number can be used to complete theverification. As noted above, the data can be pre-defined, pre-assigned,or randomly generated, depending on the implementation.

In one implementation, the following operations can be executed to firstpair a tracker to the site, and then later use an app to automaticallylink to the tracker. For example, a user pairs a tracker to a site usinga dongle or a device. The device, in one embodiment can be an iOSdevice. In this implementation, the dongle/iOS scans for availabledevices. The user pairs to one of the discovered devices. The trackersends the site various information about the device. For example, theserial number may be sent. The serial number may have variouscomponents, such as date of manufacture, seconds from midnight on day ofmanufacture, location of manufacture, device type, etc. The SU-ID may bepart of the serial number, such as bit data that defines the secondsfrom midnight on day of manufacture, for the ATD. The site receives theserial number and can derive the SU-ID from the serial number.

In this implementation, the SU-ID is a small part of the serial number.As an example only, it may be 16 bits that should be fairly distributed,as described above. Again, the SU-ID is not completely unique, butunique enough that iOS or code should only have to connect to a verysmall number of possible matches. The tracker can now advertise with thesemi-unique ID (SU-ID).

From time to time, the user may open and log in to the mobile app (e.g.,activity tracking app). The iOS app understands that a tracker has beenpaired but not linked. The iOS app scans for devices and checks for acorrect semi-unique ID. It should be understood that scans are much lessprocessor and power consuming intensive that a full connection. The iOSapp connects to each tracker with the correct ID until it finds thecorrect one.

By using the SU-ID, the device can identify the appropriate tracker inthe background without user intervention. This process makes it possibleto save on processing power and/or power consumption by the ATD anddevice, (which avoids unneeded connections, to look for the righttracker). Also, by using a semi-unique ID, the advertising packet issmall (e.g., in one example, 16 bits). A fully unique ID would be largerand would require more energy to continually broadcast, but it ispossible to use a fully unique ID in an alternate embodiment.

Several advantages are possible, without limitation to others and by wayof the various embodiments of the present invention. For instance, usersno longer need to initiate the linking process. The app can ask the siteif there is a tracker that should be linked and not draw very much extrapower to scan for the tracker. Also, the app does not need to connect toevery tracker to find the right tracker. Using a semi-unique ID will actto reduce the possible matches. The semi-unique ID (SU-ID) also allowsfor less data to be advertised than a fully unique ID which reducespower.

In one embodiment, if additional ATDs are added to a user account (e.g.,paired to the site), the site can send the device a message or link thatwill allow selection or access to another ATD. For instance, the usermay wish to link to one of the two or more ATDs that the user has addedto his or her account. The user may select which ATD the user wishes tolink to, after opening the site (e.g., by selecting one of the trackerson the site). The device 200 will then perform the background scanningof ATDs, and find the correct ATD with the matching SU-ID. Thus, thesite can provide additional SU-IDs to the device, based on whichtrackers have been added (e.g., paired) to the site by users, to theirrespective user accounts. The site therefore sends the app informationon what trackers are currently linked to the account and the additionaltracker identifiers (e.g., SU-IDs). In this implementation, the trackersassume a slave role with the mobile app acting as a master.

In still another embodiment, the tracker can take the role of master andthe mobile app can take the role of slave. In either configuration, thematching or finding of trackers uses identification of the SU-IDs, whichare known to the site and the app on the device 200. In this manner, itis possible to scan for the correct ATD and complete the auto-linking inthe background without or with minimal user intervention.

In one example where device 200 takes the role of a slave, the device200 can be configured to broadcast or advertise identification data. Theidentification data that the device 200 broadcasts can be, for example,the serial number or SU-ID of the ATD that it wishes to connect with. Inthis configuration, the ATD can be placed in or configured to be in amode enables scanning or discovery of the broadcasts or advertising databy device 200.

In another configuration, the ATD is configured with additionalcommunication capability, to allow the ATD to communicate with the site350. In one configuration, the ATD (e.g., having logic/circuitry) cancommunicate with the site directly using a wireless connection, such ascellular link, a WiFi link, Bluetooth link, etc. In another embodiment,the ATD can link to another device to enable communication to the site350. For instance, the ATD can utilize the communication capabilities ofa smartphone, which would enable the ATD to connect with the site 350.

In one configuration, the ATD can access the site 350 to obtain theserial numbers or SU-IDs of one or more tracker devices associated witha user/user account. For instance, a user can be wearing or carryingmultiple tracker devices, and one ATD can be configured as the masterthat scans for other ATDs, which enables linking and collection oftracking data from the multiple devices. In one embodiment, dataobtained from the various ATDs can be for the same metric or differentmetrics. In the case of the same collected metric, logic of the site 350or the activity tracking application 202 of the device 200 can determinewhich data should be selected from each ATD. In the example of stepstaken metric, it may be considered that ATD 1 has better or moreaccurate metric collection capabilities than ATD 2, and thus the stepstaken metric of ATD 1 will be shown on the site. In other embodiments,the site and/or app on the mobile device can be provided with access tothe complete metrics collected from all ATDs. In other embodiments,metrics from multiple ATDs will be synchronized or filtered based onpriority rules that are accessed and implemented by logic of the site350 and/or the app of device 200.

With the above configurations in mind, it should be understood thateither the tracker or device 200 can take one the role of slave ormaster. In either role, the ability to scan for and identify devices orapps using a serial number or SU-ID can be used to reduce the number ofdevices/trackers that must be connected to when finding the correctdevice. As mentioned above, it should be understood that the serialnumber is just one example of data that can be used to identify atracker or device, and other data can also be used. The data used foridentification can be assigned based on any metric or logic, or can begenerated using random number or data generation, etc. The SU-ID cantherefore be generated or derived from any type of data, not just aserial number. Once an SU-ID is found on an advertising/broadcastingdevice, other data can be queried to confirm that the device (e.g.,tracker device or device 200) is the correct device (e.g., depending onwhich is the slave and which is the master).

In one configuration, an activity tracker is paired to a user's webbased account. A client application is capable of being logged into thesame web based account. The client application would like to easily getdata on demand from the paired activity tracker. In this configuration,efficient establishment of some kind of persistent bond between itselfand the activity tracker is needed. This bond may be a Bluetooth Pairingor simply a record of some other persistent identifier such a MAC (mediaaccess controller) address/number or device UUID.

In one example, the tracker will broadcast the semi-unique identifier,which serves as a hint. If the semi-unique identifier matches, then itis probably the correct tracker. The client application will thenconnect to the tracker and query the full device identifier. In thisexample, after verifying the full device identifier, a persistent bondbetween activity tracker and client application is established.

In an alternate configuration, every tracker has a unique identifierthat may be requested once connected to. This identifier may be is toolong to broadcast in advertisements. Thus, in this configuration, aclient application must connect to every activity tracker it finds untilit finds one with the correct unique identifier.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example where various types of activities of users900A-900I can be captured by activity tracking devices 100, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. As shown, thevarious types of activities can generate different types of data thatcan be captured by the activity tracking device 100. The data, which canbe represented as motion data (or processed motion data) can betransferred 920 to a network 176 for processing and saving by a server,as described above. In one embodiment, the activity tracking device 100can communicate to a device using a wireless connection, and the deviceis capable of communicating and synchronizing the captured data with anapplication running on the server. In one embodiment, an applicationrunning on a local device, such as a smart phone or tablet or smartwatch can capture or receive data from the activity tracking device 100and represent the tract motion data in a number of metrics.

In one embodiment, the device collects one or more types ofphysiological and/or environmental data from embedded sensors and/orexternal devices and communicates or relays such metric information toother devices, including devices capable of serving asInternet-accessible data sources, thus permitting the collected data tobe viewed, for example, using a web browser or network-basedapplication. For example, while the user is wearing an activity trackingdevice, the device may calculate and store the user's step count usingone or more sensors. The device then transmits data representative ofthe user's step count to an account on a web service, computer, mobilephone, or health station where the data may be stored, processed, andvisualized by the user. Indeed, the device may measure or calculate aplurality of other physiological metrics in addition to, or in place of,the user's step count.

Some physiological metrics include, but are not limited to, energyexpenditure (for example, calorie burn), floors climbed and/ordescended, heart rate, heart rate variability, heart rate recovery,location and/or heading (for example, through GPS), elevation,ambulatory speed and/or distance traveled, swimming lap count, bicycledistance and/or speed, blood pressure, blood glucose, skin conduction,skin and/or body temperature, electromyography, electroencephalography,weight, body fat, caloric intake, nutritional intake from food,medication intake, sleep periods (i.e., clock time), sleep phases, sleepquality and/or duration, pH levels, hydration levels, and respirationrate. The device may also measure or calculate metrics related to theenvironment around the user such as barometric pressure, weatherconditions (for example, temperature, humidity, pollen count, airquality, rain/snow conditions, wind speed), light exposure (for example,ambient light, UV light exposure, time and/or duration spent indarkness), noise exposure, radiation exposure, and magnetic field.

Still further, other metrics can include, without limitation, caloriesburned by a user, weight gained by a user, weight lost by a user, stairsascended, e.g., climbed, etc., by a user, stairs descended by a user,steps taken by a user during walking or running, a number of rotationsof a bicycle pedal rotated by a user, sedentary activity data, driving avehicle, a number of golf swings taken by a user, a number of forehandsof a sport played by a user, a number of backhands of a sport played bya user, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, sedentaryactivity data is referred to herein as inactive activity data or aspassive activity data. In some embodiments, when a user is not sedentaryand is not sleeping, the user is active. In some embodiments, a user maystand on a monitoring device that determines a physiological parameterof the user. For example, a user stands on a scale that measures aweight, a body fat percentage, a biomass index, or a combinationthereof, of the user.

Furthermore, the device or the system collating the data streams maycalculate metrics derived from this data. For example, the device orsystem may calculate the user's stress and/or relaxation levels througha combination of heart rate variability, skin conduction, noisepollution, and sleep quality. In another example, the device or systemmay determine the efficacy of a medical intervention (for example,medication) through the combination of medication intake, sleep and/oractivity data. In yet another example, the device or system maydetermine the efficacy of an allergy medication through the combinationof pollen data, medication intake, sleep and/or activity data. Theseexamples are provided for illustration only and are not intended to belimiting or exhaustive.

This information can be associated to the user's account, which can bemanaged by an activity management application on the server. Theactivity management application can provide access to the user's accountand data saved thereon. The activity manager application running on theserver can be in the form of a web application. The web application canprovide access to a number of websites screens and pages that illustrateinformation regarding the metrics in various formats. This informationcan be viewed by the user, and synchronized with a computing device ofthe user, such as a smart phone.

In one embodiment, the data captured by the activity tracking device 100is received by the computing device, and the data is synchronized withthe activity measured application on the server. In this example, dataviewable on the computing device (e.g., smart phone) using an activitytracking application (app) can be synchronized with the data present onthe server, and associated with the user's account. In this way,information entered into the activity tracking application on thecomputing device can be synchronized with application illustrated in thevarious screens of the activity management application provided by theserver on the website.

The user can therefore access the data associated with the user accountusing any device having access to the Internet. Data received by thenetwork 176 can then be synchronized with the user's various devices,and analytics on the server can provide data analysis to providerecommendations for additional activity, and or improvements in physicalhealth. The process therefore continues where data is captured,analyzed, synchronized, and recommendations are produced. In someembodiments, the captured data can be itemized and partitioned based onthe type of activity being performed, and such information can beprovided to the user on the website via graphical user interfaces, or byway of the application executed on the user's smart phone (by way ofgraphical user interfaces).

In an embodiment, the sensor or sensors of a device 100 can determine orcapture data to determine an amount of movement of the monitoring deviceover a period of time. The sensors can include, for example, anaccelerometer, a magnetometer, a gyroscope, or combinations thereof.Broadly speaking, these sensors are inertial sensors, which capture somemovement data, in response to the device 100 being moved. The amount ofmovement (e.g., motion sensed) may occur when the user is performing anactivity of climbing stairs over the time period, walking, running, etc.The monitoring device may be worn on a wrist, carried by a user, worn onclothing (using a clip, or placed in a pocket), attached to a leg orfoot, attached to the user's chest, waist, or integrated in an articleof clothing such as a shirt, hat, pants, blouse, glasses, and the like.These examples are not limiting to all the possible ways the sensors ofthe device can be associated with a user or thing being monitored.

In other embodiments, a biological sensor can determine any number ofphysiological characteristics of a user. As another example, thebiological sensor may determine heart rate, a hydration level, body fat,bone density, fingerprint data, sweat rate, and/or a bioimpedance of theuser. Examples of the biological sensors include, without limitation, abiometric sensor, a physiological parameter sensor, a pedometer, or acombination thereof.

In some embodiments, data associated with the user's activity can bemonitored by the applications on the server and the user's device, andactivity associated with the user's friends, acquaintances, or socialnetwork peers can also be shared, based on the user's authorization.This provides for the ability for friends to compete regarding theirfitness, achieve goals, receive badges for achieving goals, getreminders for achieving such goals, rewards or discounts for achievingcertain goals, etc.

In yet another embodiment, the device can include one or moreaccelerometers. In one specific example, the device can include a 3-axisaccelerometer. On still another embodiment, a 3-axis accelerometer canbe replaced with or replicated by use of separate accelerometers (e.g.,3 accelerometers) positioned orthogonally to each other.

As noted, an activity tracking device 100 can communicate with acomputing device (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet computer, a desktopcomputer, or computer device having wireless communication access and/oraccess to the Internet). The computing device, in turn, can communicateover a network, such as the Internet or an Intranet to provide datasynchronization. The network may be a wide area network, a local areanetwork, or a combination thereof. The network may be coupled to one ormore servers, one or more virtual machines, or a combination thereof. Aserver, a virtual machine, a controller of a monitoring device, or acontroller of a computing device is sometimes referred to herein as acomputing resource. Examples of a controller include a processor and amemory device.

In one embodiment, the processor may be a general purpose processor. Inanother embodiment, the processor can be a customized processorconfigured to run specific algorithms or operations. Such processors caninclude digital signal processors (DSPs), which are designed to executeor interact with specific chips, signals, wires, and perform certainalgorithms, processes, state diagrams, feedback, detection, execution,or the like. In some embodiments, a processor can include or beinterfaced with an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), aprogrammable logic device (PLD), a central processing unit (CPU), or acombination thereof, etc.

In some embodiments, one or more chips, modules, devices, or logic canbe defined to execute instructions or logic, which collectively can beviewed or characterized to be a processor. Therefore, it should beunderstood that a processor does not necessarily have to be one singlechip or module, but can be defined from a collection of electronic orconnecting components, logic, firmware, code, and combinations thereof.

Examples of a memory device include a random access memory (RAM) and aread-only memory (ROM). A memory device may be a Flash memory, aredundant array of disks (RAID), a hard disk, or a combination thereof.

Embodiments described in the present disclosure may be practiced withvarious computer system configurations including hand-held devices,microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumerelectronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. Severalembodiments described in the present disclosure can also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remoteprocessing devices that are linked through a wire-based or wirelessnetwork.

With the above embodiments in mind, it should be understood that anumber of embodiments described in the present disclosure can employvarious computer-implemented operations involving data stored incomputer systems. These operations are those requiring physicalmanipulation of physical quantities. Any of the operations describedherein that form part of various embodiments described in the presentdisclosure are useful machine operations. Several embodiments describedin the present disclosure also relate to a device or an apparatus forperforming these operations. The apparatus can be specially constructedfor a purpose, or the apparatus can be a computer selectively activatedor configured by a computer program stored in the computer. Inparticular, various machines can be used with computer programs writtenin accordance with the teachings herein, or it may be more convenient toconstruct a more specialized apparatus to perform the requiredoperations.

Various embodiments described in the present disclosure can also beembodied as computer-readable code on a non-transitory computer-readablemedium. The computer-readable medium is any data storage device that canstore data, which can thereafter be read by a computer system. Examplesof the computer-readable medium include hard drives, network attachedstorage (NAS), ROM, RAM, compact disc-ROMs (CD-ROMs), CD-recordables(CD-Rs), CD-rewritables (RWs), magnetic tapes and other optical andnon-optical data storage devices. The computer-readable medium caninclude computer-readable tangible medium distributed over anetwork-coupled computer system so that the computer-readable code isstored and executed in a distributed fashion.

Although the method operations were described in a specific order, itshould be understood that other housekeeping operations may be performedin between operations, or operations may be performed in an order otherthan that shown, or operations may be adjusted so that they occur atslightly different times, or may be distributed in a system which allowsthe occurrence of the processing operations at various intervalsassociated with the processing.

Although the foregoing embodiments have been described in some detailfor purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent thatcertain changes and modifications can be practiced within the scope ofthe appended claims. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to beconsidered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the variousembodiments described in the present disclosure are not to be limited tothe details given herein, but may be modified within the scope andequivalents of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, scanning, by an activity trackingdevice, for a semi-unique identifier broadcasted by a device; connectingthe device with the activity tracking device after the semi-uniqueidentifier is found to be of the device by the activity tracking device,the activity tracking device configured to query the device to obtain adevice identification (ID) of the device; and linking the device to theactivity tracking device when the device ID of the device matches a copyof the device ID stored in the activity tracking device, the methodbeing executed by a processor.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theactivity tracking device operates in a master mode to initiate thescanning for the device, and the device operates in a slave mode.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the scanning and connecting is repeated forother devices having the semi-unique identifier until the match is madebetween the device ID and the copy of the device ID.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the activity tracking device is configured to storeadditional device IDs associated with devices that have been pre-definedlink to the activity tracking device.
 5. The method of claim 4, whereindevices are pre-defined to link to the activity tracking device based oninitial pairings of the devices to the activity tracking device, asdefined in a user account.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the useraccount maintains a current association of the activity tracking deviceto one or more devices.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the useraccount is managed by a website server.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein a user account of a website server maintains, a currentassociation of the activity tracking device to one or more devices forthe user account, and a current association of additional activitytracking devices for the user account.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereinthe device ID is one of a serial number of the device, or a uniqueidentifier, or a media access controller (MAC) number.
 10. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the unique identifier, is generated from the device ID;or is accessed from part of the device ID; or is a randomly generatednumber that is pre-associated to the device ID.
 11. The method of claim1, wherein broadcasting of the semi-unique identifier includestransmitting data over a wireless communication device of the device.12. The method of claim 11, wherein the wireless communication deviceenables at least part of the broadcasting using a Bluetooth low energy(BT LE) protocol, or a Bluetooth (BT) protocol, or a WiFi protocol, or acellular protocol, or a combination of two or more thereof.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising, automatically processing theconnecting and the linking without requiring user input to complete thelinking.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the device ID is one of aserial number of the device, or a unique identifier, or a media accesscontroller (MAC) number, and wherein the unique identifier, is generatedfrom the device ID, or is accessed from part of the device ID, or is arandomly generated number that is pre-associated to the device ID. 15.The method of claim 13, wherein the activity tracking device isconfigured to store additional device IDs associated with devices thathave been pre-defined to link to the activity tracking device, anddevices are pre-defined to link to the activity tracking device based onpre-made pairings of the devices to the activity tracking device, asdefined in a user account, and the user account maintains a currentassociation of the activity tracking device to one or more devices. 16.The method of claim 15, wherein the user account is managed by a websiteserver.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the semi-unique identifieris bit data transferred in payload of an advertising packet, theadvertising packet being broadcast by the device.
 18. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the device executes a client activity application thathas access to a website that stores a relationship between thesemi-unique identifier and the device; wherein the scanning for thesemi-unique identifier is managed by code of the activity trackingdevice that operates in a master mode, the device configured to operatein a slave mode.
 19. The method of claim 13, wherein the scanning isexecuted by the activity tracking device in response to user input atthe activity tracking device to start the scanning for auto-linking withthe device.
 20. The method of claim 20, wherein the user input is one ofa button press, a tap, a touch input, a voice input, a key input, a userinterface selection, or combinations of two or more thereof.
 21. Atracking device configured for capture of activity for a user,comprising, a housing; a sensor disposed in the housing to capturemotion data associated with activity of the user; memory for storing thecaptured motion data and a device identification (ID) of a device thatthe tracking device is able to initiate connection and link therewith;and a processor configured to scan for a semi-unique identifierbroadcasted by the device, the processor enabling connection with thedevice with the tracking device after the semi-unique identifier isfound to be of the device by the tracking device, the tracking deviceconfigured to query the device to obtain a device identification (ID) ofthe device, the processor linking the device to the tracking device whenthe device ID of the device matches a copy of the device ID stored inthe memory of the tracking device.
 22. The tracking device of claim 21,wherein the housing is part of a wearable wrist attachable structure, oran attachable structure that can be carried or worn by the user, and thewearable wrist attachable structure is defined at least partially from aplastic material, the housing further including a battery for providingpower to the tracking device.
 23. The tracking device of claim 21,wherein the housing further includes wireless communication logic forenabling wireless connections.
 24. The tracking device of claim 21, thedevice is a portable computing device, the device configured for accesswith an activity management server over the Internet, the activitymanagement server having a user account in which the tracking device isassociated, and the user account enabling association of additionaltracking devices and additional portable computing devices, and theirassociations for enabling respective links.
 25. The tracking device ofclaim 21, wherein the processor of the tracking device includescircuits, and at least one of said circuits include a firmware circuithaving program instructions to enable the linking.
 26. A method,scanning, by an activity tracking device, for a semi-unique identifieradvertised by a device, the scanning is executed by the activitytracking device in master mode in response to user input at the activitytracking device to start the scanning for linking with the device;connecting the device to the activity tracking device after thesemi-unique identifier is found to be of the device by the activitytracking device, the activity tracking device configured to query thedevice to obtain a serial number of the device; and automaticallylinking the device to the activity tracking device when the serialnumber of the device matches a copy of the serial number stored in theactivity tracking device, the copy of the serial number of the devicebeing obtained by the activity tracking device during a pre-made pairingof the device to the activity tracking device, the method being executedby a processor.
 27. The method of claim 26, wherein the processing ofthe connecting and the automatically linking carried out withoutrequiring user input to complete the linking.
 28. The method of claim27, wherein the activity tracking device is configured to storeadditional serial numbers associated with devices that have beenpre-defined to link to the activity tracking device, and devices arepre-defined to link to the activity tracking device based on pre-madepairings of the devices to the activity tracking device, as defined in auser account, and the user account maintains a current association ofthe activity tracking device to one or more devices.
 29. Computerreadable medium having program instructions for enabling trackingdevices to automatically link with devices, the computer readablemedium, comprising, program instructions for scanning, by an activitytracking device, for a semi-unique identifier broadcasted by a device;program instructions for connecting the device with the activitytracking device after the semi-unique identifier is found to be of thedevice by the activity tracking device, the activity tracking deviceconfigured to query the device to obtain a device identification (ID) ofthe device; and program instructions for linking the device to theactivity tracking device when the device ID of the device matches a copyof the device ID stored in the activity tracking device.
 30. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the activity trackingdevice operates in a master mode to initiate the scanning for thedevice, and the device operates in a slave mode, and wherein thescanning and connecting is repeated for other devices having thesemi-unique identifier until the match is made between the device ID andthe copy of the device ID.